Thursday, May 23, 2013

An Idiot's Guide To Bharat Nirman

Someone
wisely said "If you can't blind
them with brilliance, then bedazzle them with bullshit..." This works
fine for our media folks. For the eighth straight day yesterday they continued
to fool the people with the distraction of IPL Spotfixing issue. This is not to suggest that they shouldn’t cover
it but it certainly doesn’t deserve the 24X7 coverage that it is being given.
Perhaps there were orders from upstairs that the GOI didn’t want adverse
coverage of its non-performance on Rajiv
Gandhi’s death anniversary and particularly so on the 4th anniversary of UPA2. Both these events passed with
minimal assessment of the UPA and Congress performance. The most corrupt govt
in the history of the democratic world and the most non-performing one too. That
is how I would summarise the govt of Sonia
Gandhi and Manmohan Singh. The
latter is easily the most insipid PM this country has ever had. There was
another event that the GOI may not have wanted to spoil; the Chinese Premier’s
visit.

So
Spotfixing was handy for the media to fool the nation. And there was enough incentive
too. The spate of Bharat Nirman ads
by the Congress with public money has pushed all other ads into back of the
mind position. Some have compared it to the “India Shining” campaign of BJP in 2004 which backfired. But the Nirman
ads are being viewed in the age of Social Media (SM) which doesn’t hesitate to
call BS when it sees it. A couple of news media houses have debated the Nirman
ads but other than that most news channels are just happy to enjoy the luxury
dole that has dropped into their lap. Why complain! The other big difference
from 2004 is that the Congress cannot help making you believe that everything
in this country was brought to you by the Nehrus and Gandhis, the rest of India
are just passengers who ride their train. You know, like if you travel on
national highways of the Golden Quadrilateral the pics of AB Vajpayee have been
removed and replaced by Sonia Gandhi. It’s like ‘Made by Sonia Gandhi’ even when she had absolutely nothing to do
with it.

The core
Congress message of these Bharat Nirman ads are: 1) You are a bunch of idiots and you can be fooled over and over
again. 2) You are not smart enough
to notice our hypocrisy. 3) We have
nothing brilliant to show for performance so you we are going to bedazzle you
with bullshit.

So let’s
look at a couple of these Bharat Nirman ads and see what the Congress and the
GOI really want to communicate to us. The first one is about the great
educational institutions their govt has created so that your kid never has to
go abroad (Video 1.01mins)

Voila! Move
over US and Japan! Our kids have now made robots that serve tea to guests. I
can believe that part definitely because Indian kids have proven themselves to
be smarter than many others in the world. But for all the screaming about so
many great institutions the Congress has created so that your children don’t have
to go abroad, where do the ‘motor mouths’ of the Congress have their kids
going? You have unauthorised spokies Digvijaya
Singh and Sanjay Jha of the Congress
thrilled being in New York for the graduation of the sons and nephews. Of
course, their party boss doesn’t trust any Indian doctor or hospital at all.
Nobody knows her illness but whenever she sneezes she rushes off to New York,
Amsterdam or Rome or wherever ‘Veni Vidi Vici’ will take her to be treated. So
these institutions are created for desi bumpkins by the Nehru-Gandhi clan, so
be grateful and vote for Congress.

As a marketing
person, I can tell you, one of the first things in selling a product is to
imagine a picture of who your customer is. Preferably even draw a sketch of
that customer or group. You will find that exercise quite enjoyable. The
Congress is a master at drawing this picture. In other words they are quite clear who their voter is. This is a
good thing for any political party. They are even better, they ensure their
customer stays the way he has always been; a
perfect village bumpkin or a village idiot. Keep them permanently in low
education levels and low development of their villages so that they marvel at
the wonders of the world the Congress creates. This village bumpkin explains
how he saw magic stairs that go up
and down. He describes how this that magic thing goes “Trrrrrrr” above ground and “Trrrrrrr” underground and how it has
magic doors that open and close. Whoa! What could that possibly be? And the
other village bumpkins are stunned and wonder if the Bumpkin No.1 has gone
crazy or senile. Watch (0.34mins):

The
political tactic of the Congress is stark in the ad. Keep them uneducated, keep them in unemployment. Then the
white-skinned ones will come and deliver “magic” to them and overawe them with a
basket of doles like NREGA or FSB and make them feel “look at what your mai-baap have done for you”. If after 65 years of
independence our villagers have to be still overawed by metro trains then it
speaks a lot for how pathetic our govts have been, mostly the Congress govt.
Considering the first metro started in Kolkata around 1986-87 you can calculate
how far behind in time other cities are. And even the urban transport system is
named JNURM after Jawaharlal Nehru.
So there you go, if you have BRTS or better buses in your city, it’s a gift
from Nehru. Be grateful, bumpkins! While
the media does analyse whether these Bharat Nirman ads are “image make-overs”
they don’t look at how clinically deceptive they are. Why would they? After all
the Gandhi name spells money all over.

Lately, the
Congress has been screaming the Opposition is “anti-poor” because the Food
Security Bill (FSB) wasn’t passed in the last parliament session. That was
washed out over Ashwani Kumar and Pawan Bansal. How long can you sustain the
poor with doles and overawe them with metro rails? Well, as long as you “walk the dog” and make sure the
crumbs are delivered to the poodles in time. Considering the PM and Sonia
Gandhi are so concerned for the poor, how does it explain an expense of over 140 crores over the last 3 years on various anniversaries?

There are many newspapers and channels which survive purely on the govt doles. Not surprising! This is why I once
wrote “Saving Shekhar’s Express”
on the ads doled out to the paper. That is just the official spend. If you add
up other state expenditures and other surrogate ads the total could go well
over 300 crores (Do read “The Gandhi Septology”). Now on top of all these comes election and boom-time with
Bharat Nirman. Do you really expect the poodles to be honest? Naturally, the
media doesn’t challenge it when RahulG and SoniaG go around stating “RajivG
brought computer to India” or “Nehru brought gas to India”. These statements
are now the butt of jokes on the SM. That’s how Bharat was Nirmaned!

The Chinese Premier
was recently here after the Ladakh incursion. Seems peace was made and that
just reminded me of something; an old story. When the Chinese and Japanese made
peace after the world war the Chinese decided to present the Japs with a gift.
They presented them with a 1mm thick and
one-metre long pure-Gold thread. The Japs accepted it but were stunned how
the Chinese could create such a marvel. So they got together their best
engineers to find out how they could do better. The Japanese finally got it and
they drilled a hole right through the 1mm gold thread and presented it to
Germany. The Germans accepted it but were rattled that the Chinese and Japs
could be better than them at such marvellous engineering and their govt couldn’t
rest till they had outdone those two. So the German govt employed their best
scientists to make an improvement to the thread. Finally, the German engineers
created an even thinner golden thread and passed it through the thin hole in
the 1mm gold thread given by the Japs and tied a knot at both ends. The German
govt was thrilled and told the Japs and Chinese what they had accomplished.

Years later
the Germans presented the golden thread to the Indian govt. Our govt didn’t waste
any time calling engineers and scientists to add value to it. The big boss just
ordered that it be named as “Rajiv
Gandhi Golden Wonder” and the village bumpkins came and marvelled at this
wonder. That is how Bharat Nirman happens. Anything that is done, anything that
is created with people’s money and energy is courtesy some Nehru or Gandhi. Build
anything, dole out anything and just put a stamp on it: “Made by Gandhis”. Bharat Nirman!

Update: This post quoted some figures from a Newslaundry report on advertisement figures on May 21 Rajiv Gandhi death anniversary. The site has since reported those figures being inaccurate and therefore the figures quoting them have been removed.

45 comments:

"Trrrr above ground and trrrr under ground", sir be honest, where did that come from. It was hilarious. Btw, kolkata metro did its 1st journey in dec (probably) 84. I was on it. Vivid memories of papa taking me there.

if congress had put same efforts showing our country in good condition our country's credibility would have never drowned.whole country is in frustration.lies, lies, and more lies! how much longer are the indian people going to tolerate this administration?The only people who wont disclose the truth are people who have something to hide.

ITIans ... interesting remark, truly. I live/lived in Mumbai most of my life. 3 years ago, one of my relative down south renovated his home at back waters in Kerala. Its a village that just got a road connection across the river and I saw people had fun just taking the bus ride across it with no other purpose. In such a village, I was amazed at the electrical work done by the electrician. He probably did it considering that the couple are old and it would great idea to give them a switch for light and fan near the door and a pair of switch for the same near their bed. I had never seen that set up in city. Upon returning and when we renovated our home (in New Mumbai) I asked the electrician to give our rooms such an option. He said its not possible. -- The difference is ITI. You dont need IIT to do simple things that ITI can teach you. Eventually they are the ones who make it happen. We need better ITIans. I agree with you on that. Just my humble example to your note.

They are not that much bumpkins...see the nif(national innovation foundation) and u will see most of the innovations worth use in Bharat are coming from them. It is only what congress think and project them as ...bumpkins.

Police Crook Neeraj Kumar (Commissioner of Delhi police) have this spot fixing crime with proof probably from some months. He stored that under the mat so that he can divert the attention when some gigantic UPA scam is unearthed. After all, he is serving his bosses Sonia Gandhi and Sheila Dixit who kept him in the job despite his total failure in law and order in Delhi especially in rapes, murders and atrocities on girls and women. The CBI is also doing the same thing by diverting the attention by registering fake and false cases against opposition leaders and reopening closed cases.

Thank God, Diggy and Sanjay Jha have gone to USA, atleast, for the time being Indians are safe from these motormouths. By the way, where is Rahul Gandhi these days? Sometimes we hear in Bharat-Nirman type channels that he is angry with his own party men and is lecturing them daily (why is he angry and what lecture he gives,nobody knows).

Rahul Gandhi wants his party people to be honest, efficient and hard working unlike him. But Congress party men having hard time to follow these. They have always been corrupt, inefficient and lazy like Rahul Gandhi. Now suddenly Rahul Gandhi wants then to change while he continues to be corrupt, inefficient and lazy.

We talk so often about political dynasties where son a or daughter succeeds a neta father.Have we ever talked about dynasties among voters,or say dynastic voters. There are millions of households in this land of bumbkins who have the Nehru/Gandhis as their household deities and everyone votes for them the same way as they worship the family deities led from the front by a date expired,respected member of the family.The school curriculam is so full of fake Nehru /Gandhi's lofty 'acheivements' and once home, in the lap of the grannies, the tiny tots are brainwashed for life by Nehru fans of bygone era.If a hubby is a nehru fan, so does an 'upwardly mobile' wife by association. I think social media is making atleast a small contribution by making the new generation in the know of our real past.Till the rudiments of the pre independence era in the form of fossil lives among us are confined to flame it will be a long wait before this nation is awakened from its slumber.An added woe is that, many of the Gen Next are born dunces weaned away by the likes of IPL or Oscar awards and are waiting for the first flight out of India.This nation is doomed for many more decades.

It is shameful that there still are millions of educated Indians who will buy the story of pseudo secularism that the congress is peddling year after year!!! the poor just take the money offered with part of their dole cut to middle men!!

There is no development formula they have for the nation, the congress members and their team do not trust the Nation's educational institutions, medical institutions but want every one else to do that, they have corrupted every fabric of the nation, they have gang raped this nation and expect the law not to raise a hand and to stay blind, they have everyone on commission, I have never been more upset for my country as I have been under this UPA Govt and their callousness!!!

Unless each of us makes a effort to ensure that every single person is awakened from this delusional sleep........ we will not survive as a nation!!

I have no words but a sheer honest salute. With same gratitude with which I salute my tricolour and my National Emblem. My input would be if it was an Indian Govt ad then why Sonia is featuring there on front page? And if not why National emblem is being featured on the fore front? Ofcourse immaterial .. but I have faith and we will see that the bosses are dragged behind the bars in time to come.

@truthspeaksThanks for sharing the link of horahabharatnirman.But as usual it has the stamp of bungling jokers party written all over it. Probably congress stooges have made deeper inroads into them.To cite an example . The 2g scam and coalgate appear somewhere in 2nd or third page from the main front page. The scourge of inflation has not been brought out with facts and figures. If it is a counter site, then every lie of bharat nirman should be exposed, but even that does not happen. Whereas this one article and comments to it exposes so many bluffs.

I hope & that's the best one can do in such situation. So,I simply hope that after coming to power at Centre the BJP sets a CBI enquiry to investigate how the Congress party & Media colluded between 2004 & 2014 & blew off tax-payers hard money on silly advertisements which thus compromised Media's neutrality. The BJP has to do this along with unearthing hundreds of other scams hidden by UPA & Media from public attention in past 10 years.

Abhijeet,BJP lacks that skill of countering there rivals...They already have M. B Shah Report on illegal Mining in Goa during Congress regime but see what IIT passed CM is doing seating on that report ideally.

Looks like some kind of understanding and match fixing has been there between BJP and Congress in Goa...

bad idea to go after them. Not just for the BJP/NDA but for any non-congress party that may want to build the nation.

First priority must be to set things right that have gone wrong in the last 10 years. Set country on a more self reliant path. simultaneously dig in to corrupt activities but with secondary priority. The web of corruption is huge and can take years to fix.

Guys do you remember movie 'slumdog Millionaire'.. Ya.. that is what 40% of India is, foreigner are afraid to visit India basically because of garbage living standard of India, and for so many other reasons.. recently there was tourism survey which says, India stands nowhere as tourist destination internationally, where as Delhi Stands at 16th position considering only Asian cities. India is failed state, where people point fingers at Ambhanis, show biz business to show how good we are doing, but reality is that 1/3rd of poor stay in India, Indian health and educational institutions are disaster, dont even consider Infrastructure, except few areas of politicians and Business people even Cambodia look better.. The real reason for pathetic state of India are people of India who don't want to come of this trash.. educated classes are more responsible for this mess.. as they are conformist people, instead of seeking freedom they seek further submission, they are afraid of looking outside of the corporate-society box, many are Careerists, all they care about is their stupid careers.. other are Infantile people, they can't understand the community or humanity just their perpetual personal needs..many other brainwash people like Fashion chasers,Alcoholic people,Status-seekers, Sports addicted,TV Addicts, Religious people,celebrity gossiper.. we are doomed with such educated class who doesn't even care about India or even blood relationships..we are been ruled by goons, gangsters, smugglers, murderers ,rapists.. sadly they are elected again again by Indians( both Illiterate and so called educated).. India is only country where parties like Congress can rule and sell us anything like author has said.. real question is does education really contribute to revolution in India or it just shorten the Girls skirts, Increase Pubs, increase revenue of restaurants,fanatically addict to professional sports.. consider even 1% of India population i.e. 1 crore come on road for revolution.. system will change.. govt will collapse, revolution is inevitable..

Agree with you @neil. A revolution will happen, it is already happenning in some pockets. But Not coherent. As i had commented once earlier , as an analogy it is akin to the period of 1850's ( vis a vis freedom struggle). We need some game changers like subhash bose etc to make a purposeful impact. And it will be a few amongst the conscientious and aware bhartiya that will expedite this revolution. It is inevitable. Though i am not sure when it will happen. We can all continue to try.

All said and done, my favorite channels these days are-DD News,Rajya-Sabha TV and Lok-Sabha TV. They are far more informative,less noisy and irritating as compared to the private channels.Interestingly, even government channels look less congressi than these private channels.

However, I would like to point that the Newslaundry's young author Srinjani Datta obviously has got it wrong. She has probably estimated the media cost on the basis of commercial rate of advertising for the newspapers in question whereas the DAVP rates are almost less than 30% of the card rate.

The DAVP site has a page where you can input the coordinates of the requisite ads and derive the cost estimates. The cost of one full-page color insertion in these five Newspapers' Delhi only editions would cost Rs. 15.68 Lakh. [Here is the link to DAVP's rate page: http://www.davp.nic.in/Upload/davp_estimate_print.aspx ]

Having said that, I agree with you that Govt of India has wasted huge sums of money on 'Bharat Nirman' campaign. Specially the ones released on front pages, which attract extra premium. Those textual advertorials were sheer waste of money.

The TG for MNREGA, RTI, Health for all and other such subjects could have been better served through only language media options of newspapers, Radio & TV that reach masses and who are also the focus group of these schemes. And these language options would have also served the urban poor as well, who are also focus group of this subject matter.

Are English daily readers the Target group for these communications assault? What was the rationale of putting them on the front pages of the likes of ToI, HT, Hindu or NDTV, TimesNow, Headlines Today?

This campaign is not a recent phenomenon but this is on since 2011. [http://www.davp.nic.in/bharat_nirman_np.html] However, now the Govt is going over drive and doing a carpet bombing by selecting almost all insignificant media options—newspapers, TV, On-line, OoH and Radio options, whether these media options enjoy audience reach or not. I am told this burst was aimed at commemorating 4th year of this Government and more would follow as the elections to state assemblies draw near.

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